John_P
TS Member
Europa Park 27th and 28th October.
Not written a trip report in a very long time but I thought with visiting a park of such magnitude it was worth giving it ago, for the first time on Towers/Europa Street as well.
Arriving on Saturday morning about 8.15am just driving in the place looks the part, and then after navigating your way on foot you get to that fantastic park entrance. I'm certainly starting to appreciate a grand entrance. (Poor Phantasialand).
Anyhow after milling about and taking in the atmosphere of the Italian area of the park Ed Euromaus appears above us as some sort of fun controlling overlord and commences a countdown to opening.
From the rope drop it's off to Iceland at the back of the park and straight onto the front row of Blue Fire. Being a fan of Icon this was much anticipated, and whilst I'd say Icon is the better coaster blue fire is still a cracking ride with some great inversions, especially the one at the end. Will hopefully complete the trilogy with Helix next year which I'm very excited for having been on Taron a few weeks back.
From Blue Fire it was quickly onto the parks last major coaster Wodan. Whilst my current top 3 are all steel launch coasters my first love has always been wooden ones from a regular late 80s early 90s childhood of Blackpool Pleasure Beach visits. (If Grand National still ran like it did then I'd probably still rate it as number 1). Recent years have seen me thoroughly enjoy Troy, and Joris, plus of course Wicker Man their slightly more junior cousin. In fact having been back on all 3 layouts in the past month this was my most anticipated coaster of the trip. It certainly delivered, from the immersive queue leading to an intense coaster that didn't let up once. I'm still up in the air as to whether it's topped Troy but it's close!
Despite the very inclement weather we then braved Atlantica Supersplash, my decision against a poncho soon backfired when most of the super splash landed in my lap, really fun though, and didn't expect the backwards bit.
We headed then for the Alpenexpress, a fun powered mine train.
The next big coaster taken on was Silver Star, having heard other peoples opinion before visiting and being a fan of Shambhala I wasn't expecting much. But then with a '50' minute queue that didn't seem to stop moving, a very nice indoor queue section and a fantastic front row ride I was very impressed.
It was also my 120th coaster, which was nice after Taron being 110th at the start of the month.
With the earlier poncho mistake rectified and after a quick go on Pegasus it was time for Poseidon which again was loads of fun, and very good for taking photos of.
With the big 3 completed and Eurosat on an untenable 85 minute queue it was time to knock off the rest of the rides. EuroMir with it's never ending spiral lift hill and techno was a firm favourite, with it's fun spinning at the top turning into a surprisingly intense experience by the end.
The bobsleigh was a bit poor, much prefer Avalance. Also possibly the longest queue of the weekend.
Matterhorn Blitz was a bit of a disappointment, looked great off ride and the lift swaying as you went up was certainly different.
The final new coaster of the day was Arthur with it's lovely indoor queue, I'd been advised to watch the film before going on the film was I had a vague idea what was going on in the ride and was able to explain to the rest of the group why a snoop dog song popped up on the onboard audio. Thought the ride was great, really amazed there has only been another one of these rides built.
With the darkness setting in it was time for rerides starting with front row on Silver Star, another go on euromir and then back to where we started with a cracking ride on blue fire, and a fantastically intense ride on Wodan, still can't decide if it tops Troy though.
So the park blew away my expectations across the board from the quality of the rides, the staff, the general theming and park atmosphere, and the operations itself. The queues just don't stop moving.
The only really annoyance I encountered was the enormous queues to buy lunch, sadly the food loop queue was just too big, but the lines for burgers etc was quite tedious but with the park so busy I'd let them off with that.
Will post day 2 in a few days...
Not written a trip report in a very long time but I thought with visiting a park of such magnitude it was worth giving it ago, for the first time on Towers/Europa Street as well.
Arriving on Saturday morning about 8.15am just driving in the place looks the part, and then after navigating your way on foot you get to that fantastic park entrance. I'm certainly starting to appreciate a grand entrance. (Poor Phantasialand).
Anyhow after milling about and taking in the atmosphere of the Italian area of the park Ed Euromaus appears above us as some sort of fun controlling overlord and commences a countdown to opening.
From the rope drop it's off to Iceland at the back of the park and straight onto the front row of Blue Fire. Being a fan of Icon this was much anticipated, and whilst I'd say Icon is the better coaster blue fire is still a cracking ride with some great inversions, especially the one at the end. Will hopefully complete the trilogy with Helix next year which I'm very excited for having been on Taron a few weeks back.
From Blue Fire it was quickly onto the parks last major coaster Wodan. Whilst my current top 3 are all steel launch coasters my first love has always been wooden ones from a regular late 80s early 90s childhood of Blackpool Pleasure Beach visits. (If Grand National still ran like it did then I'd probably still rate it as number 1). Recent years have seen me thoroughly enjoy Troy, and Joris, plus of course Wicker Man their slightly more junior cousin. In fact having been back on all 3 layouts in the past month this was my most anticipated coaster of the trip. It certainly delivered, from the immersive queue leading to an intense coaster that didn't let up once. I'm still up in the air as to whether it's topped Troy but it's close!
Despite the very inclement weather we then braved Atlantica Supersplash, my decision against a poncho soon backfired when most of the super splash landed in my lap, really fun though, and didn't expect the backwards bit.
We headed then for the Alpenexpress, a fun powered mine train.
The next big coaster taken on was Silver Star, having heard other peoples opinion before visiting and being a fan of Shambhala I wasn't expecting much. But then with a '50' minute queue that didn't seem to stop moving, a very nice indoor queue section and a fantastic front row ride I was very impressed.
It was also my 120th coaster, which was nice after Taron being 110th at the start of the month.
With the earlier poncho mistake rectified and after a quick go on Pegasus it was time for Poseidon which again was loads of fun, and very good for taking photos of.
With the big 3 completed and Eurosat on an untenable 85 minute queue it was time to knock off the rest of the rides. EuroMir with it's never ending spiral lift hill and techno was a firm favourite, with it's fun spinning at the top turning into a surprisingly intense experience by the end.
The bobsleigh was a bit poor, much prefer Avalance. Also possibly the longest queue of the weekend.
Matterhorn Blitz was a bit of a disappointment, looked great off ride and the lift swaying as you went up was certainly different.
The final new coaster of the day was Arthur with it's lovely indoor queue, I'd been advised to watch the film before going on the film was I had a vague idea what was going on in the ride and was able to explain to the rest of the group why a snoop dog song popped up on the onboard audio. Thought the ride was great, really amazed there has only been another one of these rides built.
With the darkness setting in it was time for rerides starting with front row on Silver Star, another go on euromir and then back to where we started with a cracking ride on blue fire, and a fantastically intense ride on Wodan, still can't decide if it tops Troy though.
So the park blew away my expectations across the board from the quality of the rides, the staff, the general theming and park atmosphere, and the operations itself. The queues just don't stop moving.
The only really annoyance I encountered was the enormous queues to buy lunch, sadly the food loop queue was just too big, but the lines for burgers etc was quite tedious but with the park so busy I'd let them off with that.
Will post day 2 in a few days...
